Marines' Instant Gunship Blasts Taliban, Pentagon Bureaucracy

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Marines' Instant Gunship Blasts Taliban, Pentagon Bureaucracy

At first glance, the Marine Corps' hottest new weapon looks just like a standard cargo plane. For the "Harvest Hawk" gunship, the external differences are subtle. A sensor pod jutting from one of the under-wing fuel tanks of the KC-130J aircraft. A rack under the left wing for four Hellfire missiles. A clutch of 10 smaller Griffin missiles fixed to the ramp. With these $10-million add-ons, plus extra training for the crew, any similar plane in the Marine Corps inventory becomes a cheaper version of the Air Force's powerful, custom-madeAC-130 gunship.

The first Harvest Hawk-modified C-130 arrived in southern Afghanistan in October – just 18 months after the Marines first announced the program – and launched its first air strike on Nov. 4. "We supported [3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment] in Sangin when they were in a fire fight," Harvest Hawk crewman Maj. Marc Blankenbicker said. "We shot one Hellfire missile, and the battle damage assessment was five enemy [killed in action]." The November strike was an important milestone for Marine aviation, and for the Pentagon's new approach to buying weapons.

Traditionally, the Pentagon develops new combat aircraft and other "platforms" over periods of decades, often starting each new design from scratch. But that approach risks big delays and cost overruns – just look at what has happened with the F-35 stealth fighter, now years late and billions over-budget. There's an alternative method that pairs off-the-shelf weapons and sensors with existing platform designs to produce small batches of "just-in-time" combat vehicles, specifically tailored for today's wars.

In addition to the Harvest Hawk, this "Fast, Inexpensive, Simple and Tiny" philosophy produced a similar gunship-mod for Special Operations Command's MC-130W transports, plus the Air Force's MC-12W Project Liberty spy plane, which went from concept to combat in a little over a year. "The best solution isn't always the fanciest or the most expensive," Secretary of Defense Bob Gates said while touring the MC-12 factory. The Army, in particular, is considering using the FIST method in many of its future weapons purchases, especially for robots and soldier gear.

The success of "FISTy" programs such as Harvest Hawk doesn't mean the Pentagon will totally abandon decades-long mega-programs like the F-35. But it does prove the military can produce some weapons quickly and cheaply, when there's a will to do so. Mods like Harvest Hawk should become more common as the cost of traditional weapons programs continues to escalate. "This aircraft is not traditional – yet," Blankenbicker said of his bolt-on gunship.